THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics
at the Art Gallery of Hamilton
Opening June 21, 2019

THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics presents a survey of contemporary Canadian artists working in the expansive genre of cartooning and indie comics. On the international stage, the comic arts are highly regarded, but in Canada, it is arguable that cartoonists don't receive the same level of art world recognition. Despite this, Canadians make considerable contributions to the greater field of international comics, and Toronto, Montreal, and Hamilton are all significant centres of comic art production.

In response to this void in the Canadian museum context, THIS IS SERIOUS takes the energy of underground artistic production and indie publishing as its impetus to make visible the breadth of activity by a diverse range of artists working in this genre, throughout Canada. Co-curated by award-winning graphic novelist Joe Ollmann and Alana Traficante, the exhibition is national in scope and features the work of 47 artists. THIS IS SERIOUS presents the recent arc of production that has helped shaped the current state of graphic storytelling, here and now on home soil.

Julie Doucet (Canadian b. 1965), Dirty Plotte (detail), ink on illustration board. Courtesy of the artist and Drawn and Quarterly.

Artists include: Sami Alwani, Ho Che Anderson, Kate Beaton, Marc Bell, Blaine, Simon Bossé, David Boswell, Chester Brown, Nina Bunjevac, Jessica Campbell, Geneviève Castrée, Marta Chudolinska, David Collier, Katherine Collins, Michael DeForge, Julie Delporte, Aminder Dhaliwal, Julie Doucet, Pascal Girard, Gord Hill, Jesse Jacobs, Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, Ness Lee, Hartley Lin, Graeme MacKay, Billy Mavreas, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Sylvia Nickerson, Obom, Simon Orpana, Meredith Park, Cole Pauls, Michel Rabagliati, Rebecca Rosen, Gord Pullar, Seth, Walter Scott, James Simpkins, Fiona Smyth, Jillian Tamaki, Maurice Vellekoop, Kat Verhoeven, Eric Kostiuk Williams, Connor Willumsen, Jenn Woodall, Doug Wright

Co-curated by Joe Ollmann and Alana Traficante
#AGHComics

2019 Summer Opening
Join us for the Summer Opening Thursday, June 20 at 6:00 pm celebrating the launch of THIS IS SERIOUS: Canadian Indie Comics along with This is Moving: Illustration on Screenand My Back Pages: The Art of Zines and Indie Publishing. The evening will feature a drum, dance, and storytelling performance led by Rod Nettagog, followed by a free outdoor screening of the celebrated Canadian film The Road Forward as part of National Indigenous History Month and Hamilton Arts Week!